William Esty Co. Appeals To Dole

Dole Food Co., a unit of Castle & Cooke Inc., Monday consolidated its $25 million advertising account with Esty following a competition that involved four other agencies.

The big loser in this reassignment appears to be Allen & Dorward in San Francisco, which had the bulk of the account. Dole is also based in that city.

Allen & Dorward may have had $17 million or $18 million billing for a variety of Dole products, ranging from fresh fruits and vegetables to frozen desserts, the latter including Fruit`n Juice bars and new Fruit and Cream, both hot sellers.

J. Walter Thompson USA in San Francisco, which had Dole`s canned goods and new products, with estimated billing of $7 million to $8 million, recently decided not to participate in the client`s review to consolidate the account. JWT cited a conflict with another client in turning down an opportunity for the entire account.

The Dole review, which concluded last Friday, involved presentations from Esty, incumbent Allen & Dorward and these other agencies: Ogilvy & Mather in Los Angeles, Ted Bates Advertising/New York and Scali, McCabe, Sloves in New York.

Bates and Esty are sister companies under the Ted Bates Worldwide banner. So are Ogilvy and Scali, both units of the Ogilvy Group.

For Esty in Manhattan, Dole is a nice piece of business to take away from the West Coast advertising community. Esty some years ago did the same thing in picking up Nissan Motor Corp. (formerly Datsun), of Carson, Calif.

At the outset of the review, Dole considered at least two Chicago agencies, but those shops reportedly had conflict problems.

Dole`s decision to consolidate the account resulted from changes in management at the company.

Observed one source in the San Francisco ad community: ``It looks like Dole made the change for change`s sake.`` That commentary may well hold true for 1 out of 4 major account shifts.

Despite the setback, Allen & Dorward still expects in 1986 to equal, if not top, last year`s billing of $65 million. The agency recently has picked up some new business to offset the Dole loss.

-- International Thomson Organisation Ltd.`s Medical Economics Co. Inc. division in Oradell, N.J., acquired McKnight Medical Communications, a Northfield publisher of business publications in the health-care field, including recently launched Home Care Consumer, a biannual. The transaction involved an undisclosed amount of cash. McKnight, keeping its management, will continue as an autonomous subsidiary of Medical Economics, a firm with estimated revenues of $100 million. Medical Economics produces directories, mailing lists and co-op mailings involving products in home care, nursing and physical therapy for other firms. McKnight`s revenues are estimated in the $5 million to $7 million range. International Thomson is privately held.

-- Clorox Corp. in Oakland split advertising responsibilities into categories among its three agencies, reassigning some brands among Needham Harper Worldwide Chicago and Young & Rubicam and Foote, Cone & Belding, both San Francisco. Needham, which becomes agency for the client`s charcoal and cleanser categories, picked up Match Light instant-lighting charcoal briquettes and Soft Scrub liquid cleanser from FC&B. The agency for bleach and hard-surface cleaners, FC&B was given two unidentified new-product projects previously with Needham. Y&R, which became agency for the client`s salad dressing, architectural coatings and cat litter, picked up Lucite paint, formerly with Needham. Clorox said the realignment would not harm the agencies financially. FC&B remains principal agency for Clorox, with an estimated $50 million to $55 million billing, having lost an estimated $5 million to $10 million. Needham and Y&R are believed to be splitting the balance of the Clorox account, which presently totals $100 million to $110 million billing.

Separately, Johan Sauer, a product manager with Kitchens of Sara Lee, is joining Needham`s Chicago office as an account executive, effective May 5. Needham also promoted Tom Scharre to a creative director.

-- Forecasting household penetration of personal computers and video cassette recorders can be a risky business, even for the experts. At Monday`s luncheon of the Agate Club, a magazine sales organization, Leo Burnett USA`s Jayne Zenaty did some crystal ball gazing for the year 2010. Zenaty, the agency`s director of media research, predicted that at least 50 percent of homes would have a computer, compared with the estimated 8 to 10 percent now.